Welcome to the David Victor Vector Blog

Welcome to the David Victor Vector blog. This is blog that covers religious observances around the world international affairs and global business. This blog describes religious holidays for most major religions as well as raising issues dealing with globalization, international business ethics, cross-cultural business communication and political events affecting business in an integrated world economy. I look forward your discussion and commentary on these articles and subjects. Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Sunday, February 10, 2013 marks the start of the Asian Lunar New Year or Chinese New
Year. It is the beginning of the year 4710 (in some traditions, 4711) in
the Chinese system, which is the Year of the Water Snake.

This
post is one of a series of four posts discussing the
Asian Lunar New Year in general and the Year of the Snake in
particular. In this blog, though, we will look at some of the business impact of the
event.

For this post, we will limit the subject ot the business impact of the Year of the Snake.

World's Busiest Travel Day -- The Asian New Year

PRC officials estimate that 3.4 billion peoplewill be traveling in Chinafor the Year of the Dragon

The
Asian New Year is arguably the most widely celebrated holidays on the
planet, whatever the year. Because the celebration generally means that
families gather together, the holiday is annually the single busiest
travel day.

The Chinese government estimates that the number of trips taken by people traveling in the PRC alone during the season (in 2013 officially considered from January 26 to March 6) will surpass 3.4 billion (at more than three trips per person in China). Of these 3.1 billion of the trips will be by road, clogging the trafficways of the country and seriously affecting the supply chain for business as well as demand for fuel, hotel space, and restaurants.

This number has been steadily rising. Thus, in 2012, there were 3.2 billion trips during the Chinese New Year and in 2011, a mere 2.556 billion passenger trips took place.

Chinese New Year ticket buyers at Harbin train station In 2013, tickets to most Chinese cities sold out in 20 seconds

This
year, the rush has already begun. For example, on January 15 alone -- the first day that tickets were open for sale for the Chinese New Year -- China Rail service sold over 300,000 tickets. All seats on routes to China's major cities sold out in approximately 20 seconds. The PRC government estimates that on two of these days alone -- February 6 and 7 -- 980,000 people will use the train service in China.

Precious Metal Sales and the Year of the Snake

Also affected by the Year of the Snake is the price of precious metals. Since the Year of the Snake is associated with business acumen, many gifts given this year will be made of precious metals to reinforce the symbolism.

Singapore's Year of the Snake Silver Commemorative Coin

The government of Singapore, for instance, has issued its largest silver coin ever to commemorate the Year of the Snake. The coin is seven millimeters in diameter and weighs 1 kilogram.

The Perth Mint of Australia for the Year of the Snake has issued a pure gold coin, a pure silver coin, and a gold coin with colored highlights as well a three coins that differ from its customary gold or silver only coins. These are a silver coin with a snake in gold, a silver coin with a colored snake, and a silver coin with a snake of black diamond highlights.

Perth Mint of Australia's three commemorative Year of the Snake Coins

Fiji's opal-highlighted Year of the Snake coin

The government of Fiji has also issued a Year of the Snake commemorative coin enhanced by gemstone, it this case a silver coin highlighted with opals.

In addition to those of Singapore, Australia and Fiji, special Year of the Snake gold coins have been issued (as in years past) by the Royal Canadian Mint, the People's Bank of China, the New Zealand Mint, the French Monnaie de Paris, the Mint of Finland, the Mint of Laos, the Mint of Kazakhstan, the Macau Mint, the Mint of the British Virgin Islands and the Mints of the tiny Pacific nations of Niue, of Tuvalu, and of the Cook Islands.

Finally, in a somewhat inexplicable issue, the government of North Korea has issued a unique commemorative Year of the Snake coin with a holograph in its center of the Jewish mythological (non-Biblical) demon woman Lilith.

North Korea's Lilith holographic Year of the Snake coin

﻿﻿﻿﻿

Postage Stamps

Issuing Lunar New Year commemorative postage stamps has become an annual tradition in many countries, and an entire philatelic tradition of collecting these special issues has a wide following both in and outside of Asia.

US 2013 Lunar New Year stamp

The United States is a relative newcomer to the Lunar New Year stamps, with the Year of the Snake stamp for 2013 the sixth it has issued (exactly halfway through the animal cycle). This year's Year of the Snake US stamp is a "Forever" stamp (to accommodate postal rate increases). It features a bundle of red fireworks, paper-cut designs and Chinese calligraphy.

Canada's Year of the Snake stamps

Canada Post traditional issues a pair of stamps for each lunar new year. This year's features a domestic stamp with a red snake on waves and an international snake of a gold and jade snake. Both are shown over waves, symbolizing this year's water snake cycle.

PRC Year of the Snake stamp

The People's Republic of China's Year of the Snake stamp was designed by Wu Guanying, a professor of Art Design at Tsinghua University. The stamp received considerable praise for its design, featuring a stylized red snake with a Chinese floral pattern.

UN Year of the Snake stamp

Among other special issue postage stamps are those from Antigua & Barbuda, Australia, Christmas Island, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Liechtenstein, Macau, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Togo, Turks & Caicos, and Vietnam.Finally, in its fourth year of doing so, the United Nations has issued its own Lunar New Year stamp. The UN's Year of the Snake stamp features a coiled snake with the UN emblem and comes in sheets of 10 US$1.10-valued stamps.

Other Business Impacts

Because the Snake is associated with aesthetic discernment and a drive to acquire luxury goods and the better things in life, several designers have tried to capitalize on the Year of the Snake.

Bulgari's Year of the Snake campaign

The Italian luxury goods company Bulgari has issued a series of snake-themed jewelry items which it began marketing heavily in East Asia beginning in January. Bulgari's Year of the Snake items range from necklaces to watches. Another Italian brand, Hogan's (a division of the Italian luxury maker Tod Group), has released a limited edition Year of the Snake hand bag (playing on the association of the Snake with savvy in money matters). A third Italian luxury goods maker, Pomellato of Milan, released a Year of the Snake collection of cameo jewelry rings and earrings.

Vacheron ConstantinYear of the Snake watches

The Swiss luxury watchmaker Vacheron Constantin released a Year of the Snake watch in its Métiers d’Art Collection. The watches come in either platinum or rose gold, The large raised snake (made out of platinum or yellow gold respectively) sits in the center of the watch and replaces the clock hands. In the place of hands, the special edition watch has four windows with numbers, one for minutes, hours, date and day. The Italian watchmaker Panerai Luminor Sealand also has released a Year of the Snake watch, though with a limited edition of just 100 units. The watch features a flip-cover lid with an elaborate snake decoration. As mentioned above, Bulgari also has a Year of the Snake watch. The Bulgari watch's band takes the form of a snake that wraps three times around the wrist, with the band and watch itself made of pink gold highlighted with diamonds and black sapphires.

Other Year of the Snake jewelry special releases from top luxury jewelry lines include bracelets from Iradj Moini, Glam for Good, Sandra Dini, Judith Jack and Sorellina; necklaces from Lanvin, Judith Jack, Thalia, Ileana Makri, Luis Morais; earrings from Sidney Garber, Ilean Makri, Socheec and Hari Jewels; and rings from Daniela Swaebe, Roberto Coin, Repossi, Loree Rodkin, Socheec and Delfina Delttrez. All of these are high-priced pieces ranging in cost from just over US$1000 to approximately US$50,000.

Year of the Snake Ferrari

The Italian automaker Ferrari has issued a Year of the Snake commemorative 599 GTB sports car. The paint of the special release is made of cracked porcelain that is meant to look like a snake's skin.

Snakeskin Bentley

In a similar vein, for US$13,000 the Latvian-based car customization company Dartz Motorz provides a Year of the Snake Bentley GT covered in snakeskin. The cars come in two varieties: one with actual snake skin and one (for the animal rights activist luxury car market perhaps) in simulated snake skin made from vinyl. The snakeskin is used over the entire exterior of the car and also for the dashboard and other accents inside the vehicle.

Year of the Snake Cross pens

Smaller items that are regularly given as gifts are also themed with Year of the Snake motifs. The US pen maker Cross has issued a highly detailed Year of the Snake pen set.

Moleskine Year of the Snake notebook

The Italian designer notebook company Moleskine, in turn, has issued a silkscreen snakeskin pattern for its Year of the Snake Feng Shui Diary. Because the Year of the Snake is associated with learning and education as well as elegance, the company has also offered a 2013 limited edition Year of the Snake notebook. Both the diary and notebook have snakeskin patterns on bright magenta covers which, according to the company, are intended as "symbolizing elegance, intelligence, attentiveness and intuitiveness according to the Chinese Zodiac."

Several sportswear makers have released Year of the Snake shoes and outfits. Converse, Adidas, Vans Old Skool, New Balance, Reebok and Nike have all issued Year of the Snake shoes. For Nike, 2013's Year of the Snake collection is especially significant. The Nike special edition this year represents the 12th such Lunar New Year release for Nike, concluding the 12-animal cycle.

With the Year of the Snake, Nike has completed the 12-year animal cycle for its lunar new year releases

Mac Year of the Snakecosmetics line

In another range of products, the New York-based MAC Cosmetics has released a special Year of the Snake cosmetics line. The cosmetics ranging from lipstick to face powders to eye shadows themselves are shimmery or glossy to be reminiscent of snakeskin. All of them come in cases embossed in snake designs. They will be released on January 31 in a limited edition. Similarly, the US cosmetics company Estee Lauder is releasing a faux snakeskin cosmetics case for the Year of the Snake. These represent just some of the Year of the Snake products that will come out in honor of the Lunar New Year. If you have others, please do add them in the comments to this blog.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

While I usually devote this blog to religious observance customs and to business topics, I wanted to expand here to include an appreciation piece for the Art Deco masterpiece of Cincinnati's Union Termninal. Union Terminal is now the Cincinnati Museum Center but formerly was the city's main train station.

As you may be able to tell from all of this description, it is one of my favorite pieces of architecture in the world... but we almost lost it altogether, something I remember well as I still lived in Cincinnati at the time. In 1971, train services to Union Terminal stopped, and architecture and Art Deco lovers tried to find ways to save the building, including its famed 22 mosaic murals by Winold Reiss, many of which were moved to Cincinnati International Airport when the main concourse was demolished.

After attempts to turn it into a shopping mall and other uses, the museum complex opened there in 1990 following a public levy in 1986 to convert it for that purpose. Ironically, after saving it, the terminal was reopened to train traffic in 1991.

The Art Deco Movement

Chrysler BuildingNew York

Art Deco was a short-lived movement in architecture and the arts that could be said to have been born following World War I. It received its name at the Paris World's Fair of 1925. The movement more or less ended with the New York World's Fair of 1939.

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

Despite its brevity as a movement, Art Deco produced what I consider to be some of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Art Deco architecture embodied the sensibilities of the Roaring Twenties. Financed by the wealth of that era, Art Deco architects were able to erect an enormous amount of world-famous architecture in a remarkably short amount of time (many of which were completed only after the Stock Market crash of 1929).

Cotton Bowl, Dallas

Palace of Nations, Geneva

BBC Broadcasting HouseLondon

Among the most important of these buildings were, of course, Cincinnati's Union Terminal, but also Arizona's Hoover Dam, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, New York's Chrysler Building and Radio City Music Hall/Rockefeller Center complex, Dallas' Cotton Bowl Stadium, Geneva's Palace of Nations, Sydney's Anzac War Memorial and London's BBC Broadcasting House. At the end of this blog, I have included a list of some of the most notable among the world's Art Deco Heritage.

For a more complete list of some of the most notable Art Deco architectural landmarks from around the world, please see the list at the end of this post.

Anzac Memorial, Sydney

Union Terminal Exterior

Union Terminal is the largest hemidome building in the Western Hemisphere and second largest in the world (after Sydney's Opera House). That alone makes it architecturally noteworthy. It stand 180 feet (54.8 meters) wide and 106 feet (32.3 meters) high.

Maxfield Keck's bas relief

While the graceful shape of the hemidome is the main feature of note for the building's exterior (and interior for that matter), Maxfield Keck's two bas reliefs symbolizing transportation and commerce add an Art Deco flair at either side of the building entrance. Keck was a New York-based sculptor well-regarded for his monumental art adorning buildings. In addition to the bas-reliefs at Union Terminal, Keck's sculptor or architectural adornments include the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New
York City, the Public Safety and Court Building in Milwaukee the
Atkinson Museum of Fine Arts in Kansas City. Keck also produced all of the sculptures for the State of Washington Capitol #4 Building in Olympia.

Foundation stone and time capsule plaque

Union Terminal Clock

Also noteworthy near the Union Terminal entrance is the Art Deco-styled "1931" carving on the foundation stone. Beside this, there is also a plaque marking the spot where a time capsule had been placed placed at the foundation stone first on November 20, 1931 to which was added a second time capsule on December 2, 1958. Both capsules were opened on March 30, 2008 to mark the 75th anniversary of the building. Finally, the Clock set at the center of the hemidome adds an iconic element to the facade while serving a major function for what was, after all, primarily a train station.

Finally, as a pop culture trivia tidbit, the Hanna Barbera animator Al Gmuer used Union Terminal as the basis for the superhero headquarters of the Justice League of America: The Hall of Justice. The Union Terminal-inspired comic book icon first appeared in 1973 in the animated cartoon series Super Friends (later called the Super Powers Team) but made it to the print comic book Justice League of America series only in 2007.

Union Terminal inspired the comic bookJustice League of America's Hall of Justice

Union Terminal Interior

Ceiling of the Union Terminal hemidome

The interior of Union Terminal is impressive. Its arching vault and bright paints of various hues of oranges, yellows and gold makes a striking impression.

The size of the building itself is also grandiose, as befits what was heralded at its opening as a "Temple to Transportation."

The description on the Museum Center's official website describes the original effect:

It was nearly a city within a city. The main concourse offered
shops for everything: a bookstore, toy store, men’s store, women’s
clothing store, food service, newsstands, and even an air-conditioned
movie theater. Large lounges with large connecting restrooms were
available for men and women, along with a boot black and barber shop.
There were even bathtubs available in the restrooms for passengers on
long trips. Practically everything but a bed to sleep on was available
and all was decorated in the stunning art deco style. http://www.cincymuseum.org/unionterminal/trainstation

Main entrance

The entrance to the building is equally impressive to the exterior entrance facade. From the apex of the arch over the main doors hangs a gigantic US flag. Even with the flag blocking much of the central portion of the building's face, the glass windows of the hemidome facade allow light to pour in throughout the main atrium.

The building today has been transformed into a setting for three museums: the Museum of Natural History & Science, the Cincinnati History Museum, and the Children's Museum. Also located there is Cincinnati's IMAX Theater and a museum space for special exhibitions.All of these retain the original character of the train terminal. For example, the signage for what the original usage remains over the entrance doors and so forth.

Entrance to the Cincinnati History Museum

The Union Terminal Murals

The most remarkable feature of the building, however, are the justly famous mosaic murals of Winold Reiss.

Winold Reiss's mosaic signature

Reiss's murals are arguably the greatest mosaic artwork
of the Art Deco era. They depict the history of Cincinnati through its
residents with background scenes depicting different
transportation modes and various landmark sites from the city.

The two main mosaics are huge, stretch the entire half circle of the rotunda and measuring 22 foot (6.7 m) high by 110 foot (33.5 m) long. Additionally, Reiss designed 14 smaller mosaic murals that decorated the terminal concourses. In all, Reiss's masterpiece covers 11,908 square feet (1106 square meters). Additionally, there are two small murals giving tribute to the men responsible for the creation of Union Terminal.

The 14 smaller murals depicted Cincinnati industry ranging from aircraft manufacturing to meat packing, and from the making of playing cards to the soap factories of Procter and Gamble. At the time that Union Terminal was threatened with demolition, these 14 murals were removed and reassembled on the walls of Cincinnati's main airport, where they remain today. The two small murals showing the people behind the Union Terminal project remain in the hallway at the back of the building.

The two main murals -- those in Union Terminal's main atrium today -- depict two timelines: one of the history of the United States and the other of the history of Cincinnati.

The mosaics are in what is known as sillhouette mosaic, with the main figures in mosaic glass tesserae and the backgrounds in colored plaster. The colors Reiss used were intentionally exaggerated in their brightness to maintain their vividness even in the soot, smoke and dirt he anticipated accompanying a busy train station. Today, as a museum center, the mosaics are kept much cleaner than Reiss would have ever anticipated.

Reiss was a remarkable man in his embrace of diversity and the working class in his art and his life. For the time in which Reiss worked, the depiction in a favorable light
of Native Americans and African Americans was fairly unprecedented in
any setting, let alone the setting of a large public building.

Reiss's subject matter of working class people and laborers too is of great importance in the context of the age in which he worked. His celebration of laborers depicted in the murals have really only one
parallel -- the Detroit Industry fresco murals painted by Diego Rivera
in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Yet Riveras's murals are in paint --
not painstaking mosaic -- and the DIA murals were in an art museum
setting while Reiss' masterpiece is in the public setting of what (at
the time at least) was a train station.

Reiss's belief in diversity as the strength of the American dream is evident not only in his Union Terminal artwork but in much of the rest of his art as well. The fact that Reiss was born in Karlsruhe, Germany before emigrating
to the United States and that this was the era of the rise of Nazism in
his native country makes this all the more notable.

Reiss was a firm
believer in the value of diversity and of racial equality (for Native
Americans as well as blacks and any others). This was more than just in
his artwork. Reiss taught art to several of the black artists of the
Harlem Renaissance.The sympathetic
portrayal of a black man by a white artist in the 1930's United States
is noteworthy.

It was, however, in his depiction of Native Americans -- and especially subjects from among his friends among the Blackfoot Confederacy -- that brought Reiss international recognition. Reiss knew the Blackfoot people well and lived among them for a long time. He had opened a
school in Glacier National Park in Montana where he taught many
Blackfoot artists. Reiss's love of Plains Indian culture in general and of the Blackfoot people in particular lasted his entire life. When Reiss died in 1953, he had his ashes scattered over the
lands of the Blackfoot ConfederacyThe Blackfoot
Medicine Man that begins the timeline for US history is the only identifiable portrait in the mosaics. His name was Turtle.
Weiss had painted Turtle before this mosaic (see for example, http://www.art-books.com/cgi-bin/artbooks/01-1102 ). This is of interest not only for historical value, but because all of the portraits in the murals are based on real people. Reiss worked only from photographs for the people he depicted.

The background imagery of the murals is almost as important as the main mosaic portraits. In the history panels, imagery ranges from New York's Fort Washington built in 1776 in the American Revolution to the (then) modern city behind the construction workers high on their I-Beams building a new skyscraper to add to the skyline.

Fort Washington

The Modern City spanning behind the construction workers building a new skyscraper

The background imagery also depicts the evolution of transportation from horses through paddleboats and steamboats through trains, steamboats and planes.

Apart from the two main timeline murals, Reiss created two small dedication murals.

The first of these dedication murals shows the construction of Union Terminal itself in the background with foreground
portraits the four men responsible for the planning and early creation of Union Terminal. These are (shown left to right in the photo at right) Cincinnati Mayor (in 1929) Murray Seasongood; Cincinnati City Manager (in 1928) C. O. Sherrill; Union
Terminal Company Chief Engineer H. M. Waite; and Union Terminal Company
founder George Dent Crabbs.

The second of these dedication murals shows the completed Union Terminal in the background and concerns itself with three people central to the building's
completion in 1933. These are (shown left to right in the photo at left) Cincinnati Mayor (in 1933) Russell Wilson, the first Union Terminal Company
president H.A. Worcester and Cincinnati City Manager (in 1933) C.A Dykstra.

So this is my little praise piece for my favorite building from one of my favorite architectural eras Art Deco.

Other Notable Art Deco Architectural Landmarks

What follows is a (very incomplete) list of some of the most notable Art Deco buildings elsewhere. Perhaps the little piece on Union Terminal might inspire you to take a look at some of these, especially if they are near where you live.

In any case, I had fund assembling the list, and I hope you enjoy it too.

ART DECO IN THE UNITED STATES

Some of the most notable architecture in the Art Deco style in the United States are listed by city below (moving east to west across the country):

in Detroit, Michigan
Ambassador Bridge (to Windsor, Ontario)
Belle Isle William Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse
Buhl Building
David Stott Building
Detroit Federal Building
Fisher Building
Guardian Building
Metropolitan Center for High Technology (S. S. Kresge Building)
Penobscot Building
Shrine of the Little Flower (actually in Royal Oak)

in Tulsa, Oklahoma
11th Street Arkansas River Bridge
Adah Robinson Residence
Boston Avenue Methodist Church
Christ the King Church
Daniel Webster High School
Fairgrounds Pavilion
Oklahoma Natural Gas Building
Tulsa Club Building
Tulsa Monument Company Building
Tulsa Union Depot
Union Station
Warehouse Market Building
Will Rogers High School

Garfield County CourthouseEnid, Oklahoma

in Enid, Oklahoma
Garfield County Courthouse

in Beaumont, Texas
First National Bank
Jefferson County Courthouse
Kyle Building

in Dallas
Cotton Bowl Stadium
Dallas Aquarium
Dallas Power and Light Company Building (now an apartment complex)
Dallas Museum of Natural History

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About Me

David A. Victor, Ph.D. is a business professor, author and consultant. He is Director of International Business Programs at the Eastern Michigan University College of Business where he is also a tenured Full Professor of Management. He teaches courses in business communication, business ethics, international business ethics, international business, and international management. Dr Victor’s book International Business Communication (Harper Collins, 1992) was the first book published on the subject in the United States. Dr. Victor is also a business consultant and co-founder of the non-profit organization One Village One World.

More About David Victor's Academic Experience

I teach at the Eastern Michigan University College of Business I am also editor of the Global Advances in Business Communication. http://commons.emich.edu/gabc/

Among other subjects, I teach Managing World Business Communication, Fundamentals of Global Business, international business ethics, international business, Business Ethics/CSR, and International Management as well as a series of "Doing Business In..." seminars for business in specific countries and regions. My course at EMU in Managing World Business Communication first designed and taught nearly 20 years ago was among the first regularly taught on cross-cultural business communication in an AACSB-accredited school.

From 1996-1997, I was President of the Association for Business Communication and helped to establish the European and the Asia/Pacific regions of that organization. In 2010, I was honored to have won the Meada Gibbs Outstanding Teaching Award, an international prize given by the Association for Business Communication. Over the years, I have received 6 grants from a variety of sources including the US Department of Education and the Federal Government of Canada. .

In 1992, I was the first recipient of the Distinguished Visiting Foreign Professorship (Graduate Level) of the InstitutoTecnologico y EstudiosSuperiores de Monterrey. I was also a Visiting Professor at the University of Antwerp in Belgium in 2008 and at the Universidade do Caxias do Sul in Brazil in 2010. I also hold classes for Saint Mary's of California's TransGlobal Executive MBA students.

About David Victor’s Consulting Experience

I have consulted since the mid-1980’s, mostly in the area of international business communication, expatriate relocation and diversity management for a range of clients including school systems, hospital networks and city and state governments as well as a wide range of companies working domestically in the United States as well as in Canada, Mexico, East Asia and Europe. I have consulted and run programs for over 150 companies and organizations, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to the state governments of Idaho, Iowa and Michigan, the American Bar Association and the US Army as well as several city governments and health systems in the US and abroad.